San Diego mayoral candidate and former City Attorney Mike Aguirre speaks at the third mayoral debate at the San Diego Police Officers Association offices in Kearny Mesa on Oct. 8.
Howard Lipin
U-T

Mike Aguirre hasn’t given up his fight to reduce public employee pensions.

The former city attorney, who waged an unsuccessful four-year legal battle to eliminate about $900 million in pension benefits for city workers, is running for San Diego mayor on a platform of addressing the city’s $2.3 billion pension deficit, which he refers to as “the canary in the coal mine” that nobody wants to talk about.

Aguirre, 64, is the only major candidate who has won a citywide election, yet he’s considered a long shot to win the Nov. 19 special election to replace disgraced former Mayor Bob Filner. He’s polling in the single digits in most surveys, far behind his three main rivals, has raised less than $4,000 for his campaign and does not have any major endorsements.

What Aguirre does have is an engaging personality, a flair for debating and an encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s pension woes that earned San Diego the moniker “Enron by the Sea.” As city attorney, he issued 35 scathing reports on city operations, particularly as they related to the pension system, and filed a lawsuit to rescind retroactive pension increases granted by city leaders.

As he campaigns for mayor, Aguirre has repeatedly pointed out that the city’s pension problem hasn’t gone away. He notes that in the past few years, the city’s annual pension payment ($275 million this year) has exceeded the annual budget for the Fire-Rescue Department ($236 million this year).

“What I’m trying to say is that pensions are symbolic,” Aguirre said. “What I mean by that is that people that are making decisions are saying we’re going to fund the pensions to the point of excess, but on the other mandate, which is an equally enforceable mandate on roads, we’re going to underpay that.”

If elected, Aguirre said he would make funding road repairs a top priority and spend less money on pensions. To do that, Aguirre said he would bring employee unions to the bargaining table and negotiate the elimination of add-on benefits, such as retroactive increases, that employees haven’t earned.

If that sounds like a tall order, it is. Aguirre is loathed by labor unions because of his stance on pensions and unions have fought aggressively in court to defend even small changes to benefits, which they deem as guaranteed and untouchable.

“The pension is the canary in the coal mine,” Aguirre said. “It’s indicative of the fact that the people that are running the city have more allegiance to the pension power.”

Aguirre said his Democratic rivals in the race — Qualcomm executive Nathan Fletcher and City Councilman David Alvarez — won’t talk about the pension problem because they have been endorsed by several labor organizations.

Aguirre is no stranger to fighting against pensions. He filed a lawsuit in 2005 that he championed as the solution to San Diego’s pension crisis. It aimed to eliminate several hundred million dollars of employee benefits that Aguirre said were granted illegally in 1996 and 2002.

After a judge ruled against the main thrust of Aguirre’s argument in 2006, the case awaited a final decision on whether the city would appeal.

Aguirre took City Hall by storm amid the pension crisis and then proceeded to alienate many with his combative, accusatory style. Voters overwhelmingly booted him from office in 2008 after a single term.

The city quietly dismissed Aguirre’s pension lawsuit in 2011, citing a similar case in Orange County as having failed.